Mr. Duncan "Pops Off" Again

Mr. Duncan, the former bishop of Pittsburgh and the person who currently occupies the "Chief Pooba" of the Conelonialists had this to say:

"As archbishop I have articulated four areas that I believe need to become our distinctives:

1) that we know ourselves to be the beloved of Jesus;
2) that we become a people committed to personal holiness
3) that we understand our work as fore-runners of Jesus; and
4) that we are those who sacrifice for the sake of others.
Among other things, such distinctives would form us
into a different people than we presently are.

1) If they knew themselves to be the beloved of Jesus Christ would they not take more seriously the two great commandments. Notice I said to upon which "hang all the law and the prophets".

2) If they were committed to personal holiness would they not be more concerned with their relationship with God rather than someone else's relationship with anyone else?

3) If they understood more about how their work fore-ran Jesus Christ would they not be focused on their relationship with Jesus and not their attempts to help other people relate to Jesus Christ?

4) If they were folks who "sacrificed" for the sake of others why are they refusing to return property they hold that belongs to the Episcopal Church?

Sure makes you different.

In conclusion I call every one's attention to a Peter, Paul and Mary song/medley. The medley is a Union song but the part that most intrigues me as it pertains to this post is the following line:

"Put it on the ground boys, spread it all around boys". Once again the Grand Pooba has done just that.

BTW: Oral arguments on the property issues in San Joaquin have been postponed again. Whopee!

How About Them Yankees?

Well, there has been as much ink (digital and otherwise) expended on this Anglican Covenant to drawn at least the horse we rode in on. But, the Presiding Bishop and the Executive Council believes that we "ought to play the game". By that is meant, please consider the Anglican Covenant in time for the next triennial convention. And they said that with a straight face!

A large minority of provinces, led by the Southern Cone, want The Episcopal Church of the United States gone, yes gone, defunct, out of business, and dead in the very worst way and they re willing to go to any lengths to accomplish this task. Keep in mind that the "Anglican Magisterium, most recently asked for sanctions against the Episcopal Church in the United States for consecrating Mary Glasspool, and got them! Yes our personal envoys to at least one committee was reduced to "observer status" because we dare to include ALL our brothers and sisters in FULL life of Christ on earth.

This group of neer-do-wells is aided and abetted by a large group of disaffected (and generally speaking dumber than the proverbial fence post) Americans led by old white guys that are tired of sharing power with women, gays, and disabled/marginalized persons who really should not be in positions of power anyway! The group, led by former bishops Robert Duncan, Martyn Minns, John David Schofield, Jack Iker, John Guernsey et al are chomping at the bit to push the Episcopal Church over the edge so they can become the "one true Catholic church" in the Untied States.

So, into this cauldron, we as the laity and clergy of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America are thrown! We are now supposed to consider thoughtfully, prayerfully, meditatively, the current edition of the Anglican Covenant!? Just what have these folks been smokin? The Anglican Covenant in all its glory, is simply the Episcopal Church in the United States of America's way of committing assisted suicide! It is nothing less than the Global South's way of removing us from the Anglican Communion, quietly, discreetly and with our own approval. Now, we may, as a matter of course, take ourselves out of the communion, and we may not (after all it was us that began the concept) but why would we hand someone else the necessary approval to remove us from the communion? We are perfectly capable of doing it ourselves, if we choose. I am not sure that is what we choose.

And in the meantime, what have we done with our unruly bandits here in the United States? Well, we continue to allow them to play all sorts of games that allow Bob Duncan and his unholy crowd to out maneuver us on all fronts. We should be lobbying every primate including the Archbishop of Wontebury to remove these evil folks from their roles and responsibilities since they continue to perform cross boundary incursions and continue to not uphold our inhibitions. Why are we not out in public and all over the world constantly hammering at these folks in the press and in the court of world opinion? No, instead we are here,at home, asking politely to please consider the Anglican Covenant.

How About them Yankees?

Why Are They Still Here? Why are they still Bishops?

Well folks, the "All Africa Bishops Conference" is now over and we are once again, the main target of their venom. We being the Episcopal Church in the United States. To this "All-African Bishops" we add folks like Robert Duncan and Martyn Minns and John Guernsey and a handful of other interlopers. Interlopers being those who are currently crossing provincial boundaries to actively break up and destroy the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

This action, cross boundaries work is illegal. Many of these "bishops" and "priests' have been inhibited/defrocked. So, why is it Bishop Schori does not have a contingent sitting on ABC Williams door step insisting that the ABC take some form of affirmative action to eliminate this activity? Why is it we do not have a contingent from our Church travelling the world stopping at each province and working the primate until these folks are abandoned just as they abandoned the Episcopal Church in the United States? What are we waiting for? Why can't we get this done? What is keeping us from reducing these wrong-headed fools to a footnote in religious history?

Just asking?

They Bite the Hand . . .

If you do not read Jon Carroll (SF Chronicle) then one is missing a very fine columnist. In the September 2, edition Mr. Carroll takes on the "greed" that seems to have overtaken our country. In the middle of his column Mr. Carroll writes this, "Very rich people always believe that thier success is the result of a hard work and great virtue. They don't like to think that they are the beneficiaries of a rigged system." The gap is growing ever so much larger between the rich and everyone else. What strikes me as odd is that many of "us" think that we (us) are in that 1% that are considered rich.

Now, someone is not playing with a proverbial full deck, yet, those who enjoy the fruit provided by unions are now thinking that unions are the cause of all our problems. There are many of "us" that think that pensions are "too high" and must be cut. There are still more of us that want so badly to have health benefits but will shop at non-union organizations and organizations that make a living on non-union non-full-time workers, Walmart.

There are those of "us" who now want to repeal social security and medicare and supplemental income because they are "too expensive". Where are their minds? When they get to 65 (or whatever) and there is no social security or it is so low that they cannot survive then what?

And what gives the Wall Street "whiz kids" the right to be bailed out and then dump on the American public when new taxes are suggested (actually not new taxes, just a repeal of the cuts made by my favorite president). A significant drawback to capitalism, particularly big corporations, ones that have been "bailed out" is that they now believe they are invincible -- or at least untouchable because they are "essential to our capitalism economy".

And one expects this from Meg Whitman, Daniel Loeb, Haliburton, and others but from Joe the plumber and Jim Sixpack?

A New Look

There is a new look on this blog and a new approach. For some reason there seems to be this belief out "there in the ether" that Epsicopalians will roll over and play dead.

Here is the new blog motto:

"I do not intend to tiptoe through life only to arrive safely at death."

Forewarned is forearmed.

We Are At War -- A Culture War

I was not going to do this anymore. In fact I finished my chapter 1 and am waiting for the response from my dissertation chair. I need desperately to get away from this stuff and finish my dissertation. But what Father Mark posted touches the heart of so much of what my dissertation is focused upon.

Father mark posted this on his blog a day or so ago:
The Fault Line Runs Right Through Here: And when is the Anglican quake?

What I think is actually happening is nothing less than a culture war -- except in reverse. Whether it is Reed Hasting in California education, or Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin and Michael Savage in the arena of "schlock radio"/politics or Jack Iker, Robert Duncan, and John David Schofield in religion the real upshot is that old white men want to preserve the power status quo. Yes, the war is taken to the streets in the name of "let's bring back the good old days", or let's put "God" back in our country, or Scripture is the only way to know God but face it, it is old white guys upset that they are losing their grip on the culture. Keep in mind that John David Schofield has said that since the 1960's TEC has been headed in the wrong direction. Do you suppose that has any connection to, let's say, the civil rights movement? The founding of La Raza and MECHA? Or maybe the women's movement?

The manifestations include anti women, anti-gay, anti-Obama, anti-"loose morals", anti-education, anti-teachers, anti-just about everything. But, they stand for nothing -- they are not for anything except themselves and they hide behind things like "that old time religion", men-were-men, women have a place in the home (barefoot and preggers), and the American Flag. These folks have an incredible anti-intellectual, anti-education, anti-learning, anti-books program that is, for some unknown reason, attractive to so many men and women it is hardly laughable. In fact, it is not laughable, it is beginning to rock the foundation of our nation.

What do they want? Well, they want not to lose power. They want the white male European culture to remain dominant. What they see is the battle that is raging in places like New York, California, Texas, Florida and other states wherein the cultures are beginning to reach a point where there is no dominant culture, but rather that patchwork quilt we have talked about for so long is beginning to take hold. What those who gathered (last week-end) in Washington, D.C. want to maintain is not a culture of power sharing but rather a largess system where the white guys give every body some power, not just too much. We allow folks to think, just not critically. We allow some decisions just not those that will affect me and my lifestyle. By doing so they have fooled themselves into believing that "they share Martin Luther King's dream" of a better America. Better to them means please enjoy the power we allow you all to have.

Father Mark, and others, have clearly begun to peel the onion back on these hypocrites. What needs to be done, first, is stop treating them like some small but likable aberration. Sarah Palin is just like Jack Iker just like Michael Savage. These are incredibly dangerous people and yes, we could lose our Episcopal Church, Anglican Communion, and yes our country if these dreadful people are allowed to continue unabated. We need to get the message out that these folks are not forward thinkers, in fact they are not thinkers at all. These are power gathering people who intend to use it in ways that we have not even thought of yet. We need clear cut statements that reject the status quo, that make room for all people and all cultures. We need to define the "big tent" far better than we have to date and begin programs to not only bring everyone under that tent but to marginalize those who refuse to accept the new power structure. That means allowance for the immigrant from wherever and however that immigrant got here to get a job and contribute and find the dream just like so many of our parents and grandparents did a generation or so ago. We need to look forward not back. We need to refute quickly and effectively all the nonsense that questions one's loyalty, one's heritage and one's birthright.

For The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion it means "graciously" removing the Archbishop of Canterbury. Under this description it becomes so very easy to understand what is going on in Canterbury and how duplicitous the current Archbishop is.

The Episcopal Church needs to take an even harder line with those who would plunder the United States for their own greed and power. Lobbying throughout the world for full exclusion of those who have attempted the coup should be swift and effective.

Legal action must be complete and with no quarter given for those who have tried to abscond with property that does not belong.

New sections of the canons and constitution should be drafted and approved that will reduce the effective position of bishops and clergy raising the level of authority for the laity.

The people who would reduce full inclusion to a mere footnote in the annals of the Episcopal Church must themselves be reduced to a mere footnote in our history.

Thank you Father Mark for the clarity.

For IT and BP

Forgive me folks, I know your anniversary is close, but I do not know the actual date -- So I guess -- today! Happy Anniversary!




And now, I say goodbye! It was a good run and there is more to do -- much more. But I have always wanted to leave on a high note and I can think of no better one than to celebrate the anniversary of two very dear people, IT and BP.

To James, Father Scott, Lynn, Father Jake, Father Mark, the great Leonardo, Lost Sheep, and everyone who has been so kind and so generous with their time and their work -- I thank you all. Blessings to everyone --

There is as surely a Resurrection as there is birth and death.